East Timor awards 6 offshore oil-gas contracts to Italy's Eni, India's Reliance

05.23.2006, 01:47 AM

JAKARTA (XFN-ASIA) - The East Timor government announced it has awarded five offshore oil and gas contract areas to Italy's Eni SpA and one area to India's Reliance Industries Ltd through a tender.

A statement issued by the Prime Minister and Minister for Natural Resources, Minerals and Energy Policy Mari Alkatiri said the government has ratified the final report from an evaluation commission evaluating bids for the offshore contract areas.

The government has offered 11 areas in the first offshore bidding round, which was ended on April 19, of which it received a total of nine bids for six areas.

The statement said the commission has identified that bids from Eni SpA for contract areas A, B, C, E, and H, and a bid from Reliance for contract area K offer best conditions and advantages.

Reliance also filed a bid for area E, while Petronas consortium put bids for area C and E, which were awarded to Eni.

The winning companies must enter into a production sharing contract (PSC) with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Minerals and Energy, scheduled to be completed on June 20, 2006, in order to carry out exploration, development, and production activities for oil and natural gas on offshore contract areas, according to the statement.

East Timor became the world's newest nation in May 2002, and less than two years later made its debut as a petroleum producer with its first production coming from the Bayu-Undan field.

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